


Holding Pattern

by almostjulie



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pining, Poe-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 00:39:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9212057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostjulie/pseuds/almostjulie
Summary: In which Poe might have contracted a Space Virus and must spend 30 days in quarantine, with no contact with biological entities. And there’s one biological entity he’dreallylike to have contact with.*cough* Finn *cough*





	

As soon as he drops out of hyperspace, Poe informs Command of the situation: he successfully made contact with his informant and secured the manifest of supplies that were intercepted by the First Order, and identified the five most likely vectors to search for said supplies. BB-8 was transferring the data so that the intelligence and recon teams could get started on the next step.

And, oh yeah, the planet where he caught up with the informant had been suffering through an epidemic that left nearly a third of its inhabitants bedridden for weeks. The exact transfer mechanism and infectious period of the disease were unclear, but the on-world medics estimated that it had about a thirty day incubation period.

There was a fairly good chance that Poe had been infected. Even if he hadn’t been, the Resistance couldn’t afford to take the risk that he was, and infect the rest of the base. 

Threepio meets him when he lands and escorts Poe (through the startling empty base -- everyone really cleared out) to quarantine -- a small, sterile room off of medbay with a cot and a desk and an uncomfortable looking chair and a sonic fresher and a small window out into the hallway made of transparisteel half a foot thick. 

A medical droid is waiting there, and it makes him strip out of his flight suit. It takes his vitals, then gestures to a plain white change of clothes on the cot. At least they’re soft.

“Where are you taking those?” He asks after the med droid, gesturing at the crumbled pile of his belongings it is gathering up. It takes forever to properly break in a flight suit. 

“To be burned, of course,” the droid replies.

When Threepio and the med droid leave and the door snicks shut Poe realizes there’s no opening mechanism from the inside. 

***

The first few days aren’t so bad. Poe’s a Resistance pilot for stars’ sake: he spends plenty of time alone in the cockpit, whether in hyperspace lanes or drifting in space, waiting for action. He catches up on paperwork, he makes training schedules, he attends meetings remotely via holoconference. Med droids come a few times a day to monitor him and take readings.

Karé’s temporarily taken over the squadrons in his absence, and they have a briefing every morning after breakfast. When they’re off-duty, his friends either call him over the comms, or stop by to peer at him through the little window and either express some degree of sympathy (L’ulo) or tease him endlessly about his predicament (pretty much everyone else). 

As the days wear on, he gets more and more restless. Beebee can still visit, but every time his astromech leaves it has to go through a sterilization procedure which apparently makes its insides buzz in an unpleasant way. Poe gets the hint and on day ten tells Beebee that _Black One_ is nearly due for its annual inspection anyway, and why doesn’t Bee go and oversee it for him? 

So Poe’s on base but he can’t really interact with anyone, and he might as well be alone on Hoth. And Poe loves people, really loves them: loves talking to them, loves watching them, is easy and generous with physical affection. Quarantine is _boring_. 

The worst part, though, the absolute worst part, is that he had spent the night before he left for this mission hanging out with Finn. And at the end of the night, Finn -- brave, gorgeous, wonderful, sweet, strong Finn -- had _kissed_ him. 

It was practically all he could think about while he was gone. And now Poe’s back. But he’s stuck in quarantine. 

***

They had been sprawled on the floor in Poe’s quarters, leaning back against Poe’s bed, watching holovids of some sitcom from one of the Core worlds that Jess was addicted to. Neither of them really got the appeal. So halfway into the second episode it merely became background noise to their conversation. Eventually, Beebee had pointedly started dimming the lights, and despite his best efforts (spending time with Finn was always great, and this was the nicest night he’d had in awhile, crappy holovids aside), a yawn worked its way out of Poe. 

“I should get going,” Finn said softly. “I don’t want to incur the wrath of Admiral Ackbar if you’re not in your x-wing at 0500.” Still, he didn’t move, and Poe realized that they were impossibly close, so close that Poe thought, for the 157th time since they met, of leaning in and kissing Finn.

And then he didn’t have to, because Finn was leaning in and kissing _him_. Poe let out a low whine that he wasn’t particularly proud of, but then Finn let out a groan of his own in response and Poe was tilting his head back and deepening the kiss. 

They sat there on the floor, all awkward angles, until Poe somewhat came to his senses and dragged them both to their feet only long enough to pull Finn down on top of him on the bed. It was much, _much_ more comfortable. 

They lay like that, lazily making out, slowly exploring, until Poe brought his thigh up between Finn’s legs and _pressed_ and Finn gasped and bucked against him. And then Finn put a palm flat on Poe’s chest and said, “You really should get some sleep. I know how important tomorrow is. I’ll be here when you get back.” 

Poe had groaned in frustration, then brightened almost instantly, “ _Here_ , here? As in, in my bed?”

And Finn had huffed out a laugh and leaned down for one more kiss. “Yeah, sure.” 

But when he landed, instead of heading back to his quarters, instead of heading back to _Finn_ , Poe was taken away to quarantine. 

***

After his full debriefing with General Organa, Finn is Poe’s first visitor on the other side of the window. 

“Finn!” Poe says, though a headset, and inwardly curses the transparisteel separating them. 

“Hey, Poe,” Finn’s grinning at him, and Poe has missed that smile. “Couldn’t manage to have one mission where everything goes smoothly, could you?”

Finn stays nearly a hour, until his duty rotation in Command, and comes back again after dinner. 

He comes back everyday, actually, and those visits are easily the highlight of Poe’s day. 

Finn fills him in on the base gossip, and on the latest news from Rey and Skywalker; Poe tells about his Academy days and the local foods from Yavin 4 that Finn will absolutely have to try whenever they finally let Poe out of this room. 

Poe also admits, during one of Finn’s visits, that he’d been wanting to kiss Finn for a very long time, and couldn’t stop thinking about doing it again. 

“Why didn’t you, then?” Finn asks, and it’s a reasonable question. 

“Because I’m an idiot.” Poe replies. And honestly, he hadn’t wanted to push Finn. Finn, who’d spent his whole life in the First Order, unable to make so many choices for himself. 

“You _are_ an idiot.” Finn says, but says it with fondness. 

And they stand there, grinning at each other stupidly, and Poe wants to break through the transparisteel and hold him, base-crippling viral outbreak be damned. 

***

It’s eighteen days in and Poe is feeling especially low. He’s watched all of the holovids Jess has sent him. Connix had managed to patch a comm though to his dad and it had been great to talk to him, but after four hours they’d run out of things to talk about. He doesn’t even have any work he can do. If he could at least get in the sims, practice his flying, the lack of real interaction wouldn’t be so bad, but he’s stuck in this room. 

He brightens, though, when Finn visits. 

Finn has to leave all too soon, but Poe stops him with an idea before he goes. “You should stay in my room until I get back. I’ll comm Beebee to give you access.”

“Why?” Finn asks, genuinely confused. “I have my own room. And sure, it’s not as nice as a _commander’s_ quarters, but it’s lightyears ahead of anything I ever had in the Order.” 

“I want to think about you, in my bed, waiting,” Poe blushes a little. “Like we talked about.” Like he’d been dreaming about every night since then. Stars, was he craving physical contact. Poe was definitely going stir crazy in here.

“You could have an extremely unpleasant and potentially deadly disease, Poe,” Finn says, then glances around to see if anyone is in earshot and lowers his voice. “You’d think you’d be more concerned about that then getting in my pants.” 

“I can be concerned about two things,” Poe replies, mock offended. “Just... please?”

Finn tries to frown at him seriously, but Poe can see the corners of Finn’s mouth pulling into a smile. “Okay,” he says. “I’d like that, too.” 

***

When Poe has three days left in quarantine (and still no sign of any symptoms), Finn gets sent out on a mission. “I’ll be back before you get out.” 

But, because the universe hates him, Finn’s still on the mission when Poe gets out of quarantine. 

He’s finally free, but there’s no Finn. Red Squadron’s out on patrol, but Poe finds Snap and Jess and the rest of Blue Squadron in the mess and after dinner with them, after actual interaction with actual biological entities, Poe’s feeling much better, much more himself, than he has in weeks. 

But when they break up for the night, and he heads back to his quarters alone, he deflates a little. It is nice, though, he thinks, as he pulls on a pair of sleep pants, to put on his own clothes again. 

When he crawls into bed, something’s different. It takes him a moment to realize, then he smiles wide and breathes deep: his pillow, his blanket his sheets, everything smells like Finn. _Everything._

It’s not nearly as good as if Finn were actually here, but Poe will take what he can get.

***

He wakes up to a gentle hand on his shoulder, and Finn whispering in his ear, “Poe, hey, sorry to wake you, but I just got back and couldn’t wait to s--.” 

And Poe is barely awake and wonders if this is a dream, but he drags Finn down to him and cuts him off with a kiss, and it’s very very real and everything he’s been waiting for. 

They pull apart and say, at the same time, “Welcome home,” and Poe doesn’t care if he never gets out of this bed again.

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all feedback is always appreciated!
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](https://almost-julie.tumblr.com/) if that's your thing.


End file.
